Doughnut Trail
by JasperK
Summary: Meryl and Milly search for the Legendary Gunman. Would doughnuts lead them to him?


Meryl caught the scent of freshly baked doughnuts, and turned to stare. They had loaded their baggage on top of the bus and it was due to leave in the next ten minutes. However sitting that extra ten minutes on the hot stuffy bus was more than Meryl could handle right now. Besides, she had just had an excellent idea. It presented itself in the form of the local bakers beside the bus stop. Several other passengers were also browsing the tasty wares. She wondered around looking at the various choices of doughnut. This was yet another town they were to leave, having followed rumour to a very dead end. She was at her wits end with what to do about finding the legendary gunman, Vash the Stampede. At least they had rumour to go on, if not a picture. Rumour dictated several facts, the red coat and gunmanship featured most prominently. There were also odd details, of which his love for doughnuts was one. If she were to go with her choice, it would be stacked with icing and sprinkles. This particular shop had large jam centred ones and as an added splurge on sugar and calories, icing and moulded sugar flowers. She spent a moment admiring the artistry. No, the men she knew preferred quantity to fiddly quality. He, according to rumour, seemed to be cut of the same cloth.

She turned to find Milly charming the young male assistant behind the counter and daintily munching on the sample treats he had laid out for her.

"And so you see, we do not only sell the doughnuts. It is also the fudge, and the little crunchy nut clusters."

"Mmmh mhh!" Milly sampled these and heaped praise on them, which made the assistant beam and produce more goods.

"Milly!" Meryl hissed.

"Yes Miss Meryl?" Milly looked around and smiled. "You should try their coconut clusters, they are so tasty!"

"Milly, why are we here?"

"Er, you said you wanted doughnuts?"

"Yes!"

"And I want coconut clusters!" Milly smiled happily and ordered a dozen.

Meryl ground her teeth.

"We need doughnuts! He doesn't eat coconut clusters!" She muttered but Milly was not listening.

"Ah ha, is this for your young gentleman?" The elder owner of the store asked.

"My young— What? No, he's not." Meryl said flustered. "I just need doughnuts. Lots of doughnuts!"

"We have lots here." He said smoothly and waved her down near the entrance of the store where stacks of doughnuts arrayed shelves. "Fresh today, which will you be wanting? Chocolate, lemon icing, jam centred?"

"Plain." Meryl grouched.

"Oh dear, Miss. Did your young man upset you? Surely it would be better to get him something with a little sweetener on top?"

"Upset me? Oh yes!" She snapped. "And he is _not_ my young man. He and I have a business engagement." No way in a million years was she telling anyone she was buying doughnuts for the Humanoid Typhoon.

"Ah ha." The old man said with a leering wink and a smile. "He must have upset you very much. So what will he get you to say sorry?"

"What?" Meryl exclaimed, shocked at the insinuation. "Nothing!"

"Ah, he does not know what he is missing, such a pretty young thing like you."

Meryl choked.

"How many plain doughnuts for our disgraced young man?"

Meryl stared at the pile. How much did men eat? A lot, generally, from her observations at parties and restaurants.

"What is the biggest box you have?"

"Ah, that would be the deluxe version!" The old man grinned. "Thirty."

"Okay."

The old man smiled.

"So there is some potential for him to redeem himself."

Meryl tried to ignore the continuous insinuation as she watched him fold the box expertly and then rapidly pack the doughnuts neatly beside each other.

"The only way he _redeems_ himself in my eyes is if he actually is where he is supposed to be!" She grouched mostly to herself.

She paid for the box and walked over to Milly who was sampling a sugar mouse and various chocolates presented to her by the attentive young assistant.

"Meryl you have to try these!" She exclaimed excitedly. "They melt on your tongue!"

She popped a piece of sugar mouse into her mouth.

A whole group of school children then entered the store and soon the assistant was called away to do crowd control. Meryl ate the rest of the sugar mouse as Milly was deciding which of the sweets she should choose.

"Hey, hey, ow! Not in here!" A man exclaimed.

Meryl glanced over and found a spikey haired man crouched on the floor among the kids, trying to disentangle his arm from a strangle hold grip by three of them.

"We can wrestle outside. In here we're buying sweets. One each!"

The kids snatched the double dollar bills from him and crowded around the till to pay for their hastily snatched and as hastily eaten treats.

"That will be another ten double dollars." The assistant said to the man.

"Aw, really?" He sighed with a smile on his face. The kids filed out and got into a huddle by the door, eyeing the man as if waiting to jump on him as soon as he left.

He dug out a ten double dollar and the assistant rung up the sale. He scratched the back of his neck as he walked out.

"I was going to get myself doughnuts."

Meryl stared after him, in time to see the kids fly at him and all of them end up in a tangled pile of arms, legs, squeals and shouts. For just a moment, she had thought she had found him. However, despite the red coat he wore, he was certainly not the feared legendary gunman.

The bus sounded its horn, Milly hastily paid for her purchase, and they ran out just in time. Milly had to catch the closing door for them to get on.

Meryl glanced back at the pile of kids and their guardian. He was covered in dust and lying there sprawled out on his stomach, laughing with two of the boys who were trying to arm wrestle him on the sidewalk. She shook her head as the bus pulled away. Some people never grew up. She sighed and put her head against the window and closed her eyes. She began to doze as she the grumble of the bus engine buzzed through her. For a moment back then, she wished she were a child playing, he had such a gentle manner doused with enough mischief to make it attractive. She blinked. No. It would not do to daydream over strangers. She had to harden her heart; they were hunting a feared outlaw. She had her reputation as Derringer Meryl to uphold, and she hoped to learn something of gunmanship from him. Or at least garner the faint sheen of notoriety which associating with such a person would gain. She had beaten all odds life had stacked against her thus far, and he was the latest. She put her hands over the box of warm doughnuts. Even the most nefarious had their weaknesses, the ladies and doughnuts were his. Oh, they would find him. She secretly hoped the doughnuts would be the bait. It would be a strange kind of poetic justice.


End file.
